Malign
by Hailey Liddell
Summary: The eerie silence in Jump city is soon replaced by the destructive rampage of a villain known as Malign. The Titans struggle against his immense powers whilst Raven finds she is losing control of her own. Secrets and Tension soon fill the tower and threaten to push the team to the edge, lest the mystery of this newcomer remain unsolved. (Beastboy/Raven) (some Robin/Starfire)
1. Chapter 1

It's been quiet for days; too quiet. He could practically hear the thoughts of every villain and petty crook in the city, waiting what were they doing? Where had they gone? was this some kind of scheme to drive him insane? It wasn't right. He looked out across the water, straining to see the blur of cars and pedestrians; waiting for the explosion, a car crash, police lights...nothing. A few birds passed his view and they didn't ever so much as swoop down for a fish. The sky was warm and blue with a sun that shone bright and warm, but some kind of thick heavy essence hung in the air; nothing like humidity. His eyes flicked to the ground a moment, it stood still. The fiber of the carpet barely twitched as he shifted his foot. He listened past the floor, into the depths of the tower; silence.

No video games. No tea kettle. No music. The titans had been carefully shuffling about the tower under the weight of an ever more threatening aura; his. They could feel his disdain, paranoia and ever bottling frustration. And in deep regard for that walked on the very tips of their toes. He felt, obviously, guilty for this but could not be shaken of his temperament. He was far too familiar with the idea of "the calm before the storm" to be anywhere but on the edge.

He looked back to the city and saw it a blaze, towers crumbling to the streets, villains dancing in the air and terrorizing the ground, delighting in their success. His fist tightened as he felt his anger swelling; a balloon inflating inside is chest except he'd be the one to burst. The presence of a titian hand deflated all of that in an instant. It was a soft touch, but held the hints of a heavy heart. He raised his own to shoulder level and placed it on top of hers. She smiled hopefully at him and pulled towards his bed. He went along but continued to watch the burning city. Taking careful note of where each ember touched the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

Emerald fingers rapped the kitchen table in perfect rhythm. It was the only sound in the room, as everyone was tightly locked away inside their own. Such confinement fought heavily with Beast Boy's natural urge to roam. He thought the main room would be better, but with it quiet and completely devoid of life it wasn't much of an improvement. He pushed himself away from the table and journeyed to the elevator. The doors opened to a hallway of bedrooms and he started towards Cyborgs.

He knocked…no answer. "Cy?" He asked and knocked again. "Cyborg?" He waited…nothing. He focused in on the sound from the room and recognized the familiar sound. Pushing the door aside he strode in, "Dude! You're just gonna sit here and game without me!?" Cyborg jumped from his chair and cover B's mouth with a metal hand. "Shhh! Robin thinks I'm monitoring the city's online crime database, get outta here before you blow my cover!" He scooted B back out into the hallway. "But-" B tried but Cyborg was wavered, "Sorry man," he peered down towards Robin's door, "I refuse another lecture." And with that he shut the door. B muttered and went towards Robin's door. Half a knock and Star whooshed the door aside taking firm hold of his hand. "Friend please, Robin is resting," She whispered, "I fear if he wakes again he will not sleep for days." She looked tired, no doubt having lost as much sleep as Robin. "Ugh…sorry Star." He said receded towards the elevator. There was a paused as he reached for the button, "Well…" He thought, looking over his shoulder at the door next to his own. "I'd better bring incentive."

The halls seemed to narrow as he got closer. His arms felt strangely aware of the weight of the tray they were carrying. Expectation promised irritated faces and slammed doors; at the very most she would take the mug he offered her first. He probably should have just left it alone, let everyone work things out for themselves or just wait until the alarm went off. But trying to return to the main room and keep himself company proved mind numbing.

He balanced the tray with one hand to knock. She too opened the door in an instant, which threw him off. Her eyebrow raised slightly as she looked from him to the tray "What?" Her greeting was as flat as ever. "Um…hey Rae, I uh made some tea…"

"…And?" She asked looking back up at him.

"Well I was kind of hoping you'd come out and drink it with me." Her eyes squinted a bit and he smiled nervously.

"No, thanks." She finally said and started to shut the door.

B's face fell and he sighed, "Dammit." Raven stopped, her eyes darting a bit; confused.

"Sorry," She said, "Did I offend you or something?"

"No…it's just, kinda dull out here."

"And you thought _I_ was going to change that?"

B laughed quietly, "I was actually hoping to get everyone together."

"Oh…"

"So is it still a No?" The hopeful smile returned and he raised the tray. She still looked hesitant. He had known the likelihood of this working wasn't good, but somehow he still wasn't prepared to be turned down. "Aw come 'on Rae!" Before she could refuse he reached his arm forward and placed his hand on the small of her back, pushing her out the door. She let out a quiet sound of surprise but didn't swing at him. He closed her door and turned to her sheepishly. "Please?" He asked half using the tray for a shield. Her face was composed.

"…Okay."

"Okay?" He repeated almost in disbelief. She nodded and turned to walk towards the elevator. "Okay." He said to himself and walked after her.

They sat on the couch in silence, she seemed unbothered. B forced himself to sit quietly rather than disrupt it and possibly drive her away.

Despite the strange tension filling the tower now, he had become irrevocably close to his friends in recent years. They had grown and faced many difficulties together, both of which had resulted in change. B had matured, even if only slightly, and had at the very least gotten taller. He couldn't help but smile sometimes during arguments with his teammates at the thought he was finally looking down at them instead of up. His lighthearted essence remained in full, but there was an undertone of seriousness that had never existed before.

Emerald eyes looked across the couch. Raven's hair had grown far past her shoulders, tickling at her ribs. She hadn't advanced much in height but her eyes seemed to be continually adding depth. These eyes caught his staring and caused an immediate blush. "Hah, sorry. Zoned out for a minute." She almost half smiled and looked back to her tea.

They had all gotten quite used to each other; even Raven seemed at ease in her friend's presence. A mere two years ago the scene upstairs would have been entirely different. In nearly every battle, more often than not, they would end up bumping into each other. Thrown by an attack, caught mid-air, help up from the ground, such had happened hundreds of times and no one seemed to think anything of it. But anywhere else it was different. B didn't recall the first time they knocked into each other in battle but for some reason he recalled with perfect clarity when he had first touched her at home. It was such a menial thing. He had been standing in the kitchen by the fridge talking to Cy when Silkie entered the room and regurgitated something green onto the floor. He jumped back a couple feet near the hallway and shrieked, "Ew dude gross!" Star snatched her pet in fear of him being sick. He looked for something else to focus his senses on to avoid smelling the mess and caught Raven's scent coming down the hallway. He could also smell the aging pages of the book she was no doubt buried in. "Oh Rae watch out." He said and held her back with his hand. He didn't look at her right away, thinking nothing of the action. But when he finally did she was looking directly at him. He didn't understand the look of shock in her eyes. Finally, he became aware of his hand and looked at where he had placed it on her abdomen. She seemed infinitely uncomfortable against his touch; the feeling began to seep into him as well. He withdrew and curled the hand into a fist, he opened his mouth to say something but found nothing that made sense. Her eyes fluttered and then returned to her book, which she promptly closed and looked at the mess in front of her. "Gross." She said and left the room. His fist remained in the air as he watched her go.

Today she didn't so much as flinch when he had boldly led her. She had even agreed to go along with him. They had grown so much closer to each other, and he was personally glad for it. Raven sat the empty mug on the small table in front of them and sat back, he feared she would now leave. "Rae-" He started prematurely. "hmm?" She asked without looking at him. He watched as a book encased in black energy floated into her grasp. "Um…what're you reading?"

Her brow furrowed slightly. "Just meditation rituals."

"Ah…exciting." He said sounding more unenthused than he intended. She turned slightly.

"Did you have a better idea?"

B shook his head "No."

"It's best we stay quiet, lest we wake Robin up."

B agreed, leaning back into the couch.


	3. Chapter 3

"Cyborg, report!" Robin burst into the room startling Cyborg awake. He quickly sat up towards the screen. "Wah!" His eyes looked towards his fingers as they fumbled around on the keyboard. "Not much to report Rob. Things have been pretty quiet." Robin leaned onto the desk scanning the screen with expert eyes of determination, noticing a small spec of green near the corner.

"Zoom out to show surrounding cities." Cyborg sighed but did as told. What was revealed was a small crime streak the length of three cities. It was all coded in green, meaning it was caused by the same person.

"Whoa…All this in just one night?" Cyborg brought up the stats gathered by local police. Records of moderate damage were pages long. "Broken windows, cracked roads, over turned cars…nothing serious but it's been making a mark. Whatever this is it'll in Steel City next, and soon." Robin was already leaving the room.

"I'll brief the others; start getting ready."

"Man with a threat rating this low it should be pretty easy to stop. We could just call East and tell them-"

"If it was so easy why hasn't anyone stopped it already?" Robin combated. Cyborg sat silent. "We leave today." And with that he left the room.

Cyborg raised his communicator to his ear, the rhythmic ringing was soon replaced by Bumblebee's voice; heavy with sleep. "Cyborg? Whatsup? Kinda sleeping over here." She said rubbing at her eyes.

"You might wanna make some coffee"

"We're leaving within the hour. The sooner the better, if you can wake Beast Boy and get him up to speed I'll do the same for Star." Robin stood in front of Raven's door his adrenaline already slowly taking over his system

"Sure…" Raven said with silent concern for her friend. She would have perhaps protested or at least pointed out his haste but knew better than to object when he was this set. He swiftly turned and headed towards his room to wake Starfire. Raven's eyes, devoid of any enthusiasm, slid towards Beastboy's room. He would be dead asleep, most likely not hear her knocking or yelling if it came to that. There would be the awkward decision of whether or not to enter his room and not know what she might walk in to see. She sighed and raised her hand to knock.

Her scent filled his nostrils the moment her door had opened, and he could hear the sounds of her and Robin talking. Still he let her knock without reply. He wasn't exactly asleep but he certainly wasn't awake; more so wallowing in the comfortable space between. Images traveled through his brain with parts of reality as well as his dreamscape. They were distorted and coming in too fast to clearly see but flashes of violet of hints of incense was enough to keep him warmly confined to his bed.

Raven's head fell back towards the ceiling. She was just about to put her hand over eyes and take the plunge when a large hand graced her shoulder.

"Yo Grass Stain!" Cyborg pounded on the door, effectively producing a loud thud indicating Beast Boy had been shaken awake. "There you go." He said and continued towards the garage with his bags.

Raven smiled slightly, "Thanks." The door slid open to reveal a disheveled Beast Boy, hair messy and clothes much the same .

"Man what's going on?" Raven took him in for a moment and replied without meeting his eyes.

"We're leaving, for steel city, Robin thinks there's something headed their way that they might need help with." He grumbled but turned to rummage through a pile of clothes, selecting a clean shirt from the heap. With hesitation he pulled his current top off and revealed a slender set of muscles. Raven blushed.

"You think we'll be there a while?"

"Mm a few days maybe." She replied and watched him throw a few more shirts towards his bag along with his uniform. He then picked up of pair of jeans and threw them over his shoulder, fingers untying the knot in his pajama pants. Raven spun quickly her face deepening its shade of red. Beast Boy had to curl his lips in to fight a smirk. "Um… Robin wanted me to brief you before we leave, so everyone's up to speed."

"I'll catch up in the car." He said walking past her, his bag slung over his shoulder. "I'm not leaving without breakfast." She looked after him in annoyance and turned around to go and pack her own things.

As she placed her clothes into her bag she wallowed in irritation for a moment. Maybe the Titans had grown a little too comfortable with each other. Him practically stripping in front of her, ignoring Robin's orders; she shook her head and zipped up her bag. She then positioned herself for meditation and pulled the images to the front of her mind. She carefully folded each as if they were a physical photograph and tucked them away, out of sight as well as the emotions that went with them. When she opened her eyes she felt calm and relaxed. With a smile of efficiency she went to join the others.

They all stood outside, placing their bags in the trunk of the T car and waiting for Robin. Raven took the seat near the passenger side window and Star was about to slide in after her. "Hey star did you leave extra food out for silkie?" B asked leaning against the car.

"Gasp, I did not; thank you friend." She quickly flew towards the tower to tend to her pet. B watched her go and then jumped in next to Raven.

"So what's this all about?" Raven didn't look up from her book.

"Robin sent the information to all of our communicators, it should catch you up." He looked down at the device clipped to her belt, resting on her hip and swiftly snatched it. Her eyes widened as she felt his fingers graze her skin. She looked over at him with annoyance but he seemed to be intently looking over the data in front of him.

Robin and cyborg could be heard from outside. "The jet would be much faster; it's going to take hours to get there otherwise."

"You know we don't have the air clearance to just fly in like that. We don't even have a solid case to say why we're there. If we're going to interfere we're at least going to do it legally."

Robin grumbled in defeat and got in the front seat. Star and Cyborg soon followed.

Raven feigned interest in her book but was silently in meditation. Along with the minor irritants of the day, her nerves were flustered as soon as the words Steel City left Robin's lips. She worked silently to put away images of black eyes staring down at her through even darker hair, toned muscles and enticing smiles; all of which made her stomach flutter. It was weak to let him affect her at all, but his essence was alluring. Her empathy couldn't help but feel his confidence and intrigue whenever the two were near one another. She hoped to make use of the long drive and be fully prepared for a possible prolonged stay; going over everything piece by piece making sure not to miss anything. Any bit of curiosity, attraction, and pictures of his hands exploring her were flicked to the back of her brain. She opened her eyes, feeling complete, with one hour remaining in the drive.

Starfire was asleep against her window, the radio played softly, and Beast boy was looking at her communicator. She was surprised to see that it was data Robin sent. "Are you still looking at that?" "Mhmm." He said, his thumb pressing against his lips. She forgot from time to time how he had grown to show interest in mystery cases over the years.

"It's strange." He said still looking at the screen.

"What?" She said honestly curious.

"The rating is so low, but there's obvious proof of heavy damage everywhere this thing's been."

"No one's seen it from what I can gather." Robin chimed in. "It seems to be a rampage with no target. The damage is in a large scale but not unfixable. Broken windows, wrecked stores, just enough to get attention. It could very well be a group of petty crooks, bored and looking for trouble."

Beast boy shrugged, "Guess we'll find out," and closed the device setting it in Raven's lap. She quickly snatched it and defiantly reattached it to her other hip.

The sky had grown dusky with the beginnings of sunset. It would be dark when they reached Titan's East. She thought of Aqualad's black eyes gleaming in the moonlight and effectively felt nothing. She again smiled in self-satisfaction. With continuous meditation this mission should go by with ease.

The Titans East greeted them as soon as they arrived, having already been outside. Aqualad opened Raven's door and extended his hand. Her face didn't change as she took it and stepped out, looking straight into his eyes once free of the car. "Our visits are so infrequent. It's a shame really, I love seeing you."

"I guess we should hope for more global disasters." She said not particularly meaning to be funny. He smiled and chuckled a bit anyway.

He walked with her towards the entrance to the tower, thinking. "I can show you to the guest room if you like."

"Sure, thanks." She said looking ahead.

"And mine of course, in case of an emergency or something."

Her eyebrow rose slightly. "Emergency?"

"Yes, mine is the closest to the guest quarters since they're on the lower levels. I like to be near the water."

"Makes sense." She agreed.

The others were a ways ahead of them, but sharp green ears picked up on Aqualad's words. From her tone Raven seemed aware but unphased by what he said. B took some comfort in this but still couldn't help but feel disgust at such a cheap proposition and the thin veil that attempted to cover it. He slowed his pace so that they caught up to him. "If there was an emergency I'd be the first to know." B said, prompting looks from both of them. He pointed to his ears, "Nothing gets by the ears." He smiled lightheartedly but directed his comment towards the man next to him. Aqualad met his eyes with a glare.

"I suddenly feel so much safer." Raven said and walked ahead of both of them to join the others.

"Must be nice to have the power of eavesdropping." Aqualad said to B once Raven was out of ear shot.

"Ah come on I'm sure there's all kinds of dolphin drama you get to overhear."

"Actually I typically mind my own business."

"Well I kinda think my friends are my business so"

"Well _I_ kinda think you're wrong." The intensity of Aqualad's glare was now accompanied by a fiercely irritated scowl.

"Whoa dude, don't get so worked up. What's the likelihood of Raven needing help anyway; pretty sure she wouldn't need either of us in an emergency."

"You wouldn't know what to do if she did." Aqualad crossed his arms and looked away in a feeble attempt to block him out. Beastboy felt his skin cool with the underlying content of Aqualad's choice of words. He suddenly felt protective, on edge. But quickly realizing the silliness of such feelings he pushed them aside before a brawl began. The two had never much gotten along, but Aqualad's cheap pursuit of Raven in recent years had only added to their feuding. "You're right. What do I know about a girl I've lived with for six years anyway?" He skipped ahead leaving Aqualad to scowl under his breath, twisting his hands into fists. His sincere opinion of B had long since been that of an annoying child. Over time that was slowly developing into annoying competition, and he was not so fond of competition. He didn't see him as any real threat, for he had never seen Raven regard him as anything but frustrating as well. The only change was his comments were getting slightly more difficult to combat, and he didn't need to waste anymore brain power of arguing with a grass stain. He hadn't been too worried about a possible clan of punks messing up a few cities but the opportunity to have Raven stay at his tower for even two nights was too much to ignore. He had been preparing since this morning when cyborg had called. He wouldn't have this opportunity tarnished with Beast Boy's antics. If need be, he had no qualms about pounding his face to different color.


End file.
